An activity calendar works on the same principle as a chocolate one - a small surprise every day - but the surprise is something you do. A few rules make it work:
- Keep weekdays tiny. Ten minutes after dinner. Save anything bigger for weekends.
- Mix the kinds of thing. Something to make, something to sing, something kind, something quiet.
- Write it down in advance. A calendar you plan on the morning of each day does not survive the second week of December.
Things to make
- Bake gingerbread cookies and decorate them.
- Make real hot chocolate from chocolate and milk, not powder.
- Cut paper snowflakes and stick them to a window.
- Make a paper chain with one link for each day left.
- Draw your own Christmas cards for grandparents.
- Bake sugar cookies to give to neighbours.
Things to sing and play
- Learn the words to one carol and sing it at dinner.
- A family Christmas quiz - our thirty questions are ready to use.
- Christmas charades: everyone acts out a carol or a Christmas film.
- Have a dance party to one Christmas song, as loud as you like.
Stories and the wider world
- Read "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aloud, taking turns with the verses.
- Find out how Christmas is celebrated in another country - Germany, Mexico, Iceland and Australia are a good start.
- Do as Icelanders do: give each other a book and read it that evening.
- Each person shares a favourite Christmas memory.
- Look up why some families celebrate on January 7.
Things that are kind
- Choose toys you have outgrown to give away.
- Write a thank-you note to a teacher, a postman or a bus driver.
- Call or video-call a relative who lives far away.
- Put out food for the birds.
Quiet evenings
- Turn off the big lights, light the tree, and just sit.
- Walk or drive around to look at other people's Christmas lights.
- Watch a Christmas film in pyjamas.
- Build a blanket fort and tell stories in it.
- On Christmas Eve, put out something for whoever is coming down the chimney.
Making it last
The part children love most is often seeing the month add up: a paper chain getting shorter, a list of crossed-off days, a tree filling with ornaments. Keep whatever the calendar leaves behind somewhere visible.
If you would rather not plan twenty-four days yourself, Christmas Advent Calendar brings many of these to the TV: carols with sing-along lyrics, a family quiz, recipes, stories to read aloud and traditions from around the world behind the doors of a snowy village - and every opened door hangs an ornament on your tree.